Week Seven of ARCA's Postgraduate Certificate Program got off to an unusual start with
most of this year’s students off-site. Monday and Tuesday saw the remnants of
the long weekend break where many of the students travelled both within and
beyond Italy. Students enjoyed the sights around Italy such as Bari, Matera,
Venice, Milan and Florence in addition to other locations beyond the borders
such as Switzerland, Serbia, Marrakech and Malta.

Our slower than usual return to classes on
Wednesday afternoon began our first day of a new module on Cultural Security
led by Dr. Erik Nemeth. With a brief segue from art crime, our first encounter
focused on the interdisciplinary nature of Cultural Security and the
interactions of each discipline very thoroughly represented in our class from
the three areas of physical, political and economic spheres.

With our first full day of classes we
further examined the dimensions of cultural security during three main temporal
spheres: the Second World War, the Cold War, and the Post-Cold War periods. The
dynamics between cultural security and cultural intelligence opened up a
discussion on the problems and solutions currently at play on the international
field. Again, each student offered insights from their own fields. Dr. Nemeth’s
presentations offered a view of cultural security through a series of
well-known case studies such as the infamous destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhasin Afghanistan in 2001 and of the Samarra Mosque in Iraq in
2006.

A discussion of the great losses to
cultural property could only be followed with the counter-active measures:
cultural intelligence services. Dr. Nemeth’s scientific approach to this
subject brought about a new way of attacking our studies through the use of
statistical analysis. This data may be used to predict threatened cultural heritage sites worldwide by organizations who are tasked with the protection of cultural property in
areas of conflict.

As we are getting further and further into
the course, an interesting dynamic begins to arise. Having covered such
significant areas such as bi-lateral agreements previously in our class on Art
Crime in War with Judge Arthur Tompkins, in addition to during our class on Art
and Heritage Law, we are now garnering a view of intricate
subject areas such as this from a number of viewpoints. This multi-disciplinary
approach to major issues within the area of art crime research is creating a
solid foundation in our knowledge of this area with every new module.

Coming off the hectic travel during the
long weekend, and with no formally arranged class trips, most students took
advantage of last weekend to relax. A fantastic birthday party for one of the students at the top of Amelia beside the duomo offered astounding panoramic views of Amelia. As Week Seven came to a
close, some of our students even benefited from a poolside reading of Dorit
Straus’ article on “Insurance Claims and the Art Market” in preparation for
Week Eight in ARCA’s 2013 Postgraduate Program.